In recent years, recognition has become widespread of the problem of excessive changes to core body temperature during physical exertion. The problem has the potential to affect a broad swath of the population, including athletes from the professional level to the recreational. Excessive body temperature may manifest itself in the form of heat stroke or heat exhaustion. In the other extreme, hypothermia may result from excessive reduction of body temperature.
Monitoring body temperature during athletic events poses special challenges. The wearer must maintain mobility, so that devices protruding from the mouth or ears are impractical. Furthermore, it is often normal and safe for body temperature to fluctuate substantially during physical exertion, so that it may be necessary to monitor body temperature over some period of time in order to accurately determine whether body temperature is outside of a safe range. Additionally, the measurement of body temperature should accurately measure core body temperature. For this reason, systems and methods that monitor skin temperature are deficient, because temperature often at the skin may differ significantly from core body temperature.
Thus, there remains a need for a system or method for effectively monitoring body temperature during physical exertion.